Galatians 5:1-15 All or Nothing Freedom

In this week's passage from Galatians, the Apostle Paul moves from defense of the true gospel to application of that gospel.  He argues that the freedom from condemnation and fear that Jesus gives necessarily leads those who come to faith in Christ to live lives of free obedience to God.   QUOTES:  “The great paradox of the Bible is that the commands of God make spacious places of our lives. They don’t limit our freedom so much as they make true freedom really possible.”—Jen Pollock Michel “Freedom is not being turned free to be whatever we want (i.e., egocentrism); nor is it some kind of "self-discovery" or "self-authentication" (that, too, is egocentrism); rather, it is being incorporated into the life of God, which he mediates to us through Christ and allows us to enjoy in the Spirit.”—Scot McKnight “The gospel therefore neither leads us to live a guilty life (since God has lovingly accepted us), nor an unholy life (since the God who has accepted us is perfectly holy). To forget the first is to … lose our freedom; to forget the second is to… abuse our freedom. Both mean we lose grasp of the gospel.”- Tim Keller DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: (v. 1-2) Why does Paul seem to think that “faith plus our obedience” puts a burden of slavery on us? (v.5) How much of a difference does the “certain future hope” of being accepted by God make to you right now? What can you do to meditate more on this hope? (v.6) How does the Gospel change both the way you react to successes and failures? How does this change increase your ability to love God and others? (v7-12) Where in your life do you need to stand up and root out false messages about God? How can your community in RUF help you with this? Someone might argue that “because Christ has set us free from the law, we can now ignore God’s commands.” From v.14, how would you answer this?